Design

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https://hdl.handle.net/10315/27709

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Open Access
A visual exploration of the transformation of cultural landscapes in little Jamaica between Allen Road and Oakwood Avenue, comparing two periods in history: 1969 and the current condition
(2022-08-08) Matovu, Fredric Kisakye; Schaffzin, Gabi
This research is a visual documentation of changes between Allen Road and Oakwood Avenue in Little Jamaica. The study visually maps cultural landscape elements and links cultural markers to groups living in the location from 1969 through 2021. "Cultural marker" is a term I used to describe elements that trigger memories and experiences in addition to being associated with a specific culture. I used a narrative to provide a human component. The images comprise a front elevation of the built form supported by detailed illustrations and photographs of the frontage. The research identifies the significant contributions of Caribbean immigrants to the study area and highlights the loss that occurs when construction erases these elements without documentation. The cultural markers provide a sense of place to specific groups away from home. The research is also a foundation of a visual framework for studying changes in cultural landscapes in urban settings.
Open Access
A Visual Response to Mass and Social Media's Negative Portrayal of Mexican Indigenous People: A Cyclical Design Process
(2021-07-06) Mota Gamboa, Angelica; Gelb, David
Mass media and social media in Mexico have been depicting the visual image of Indigenous people through stereotypes that were established during the Spanish conquest. Not only have these stereotypes shaped the reality of a dominant group over a minority, they have also led to racist and discriminatory practices towards Indigenous people. This thesis creates a cyclical design process based on a practice-lead research and research-lead practice model to conduct a visual exploration. Through a cyclical design process this paper visually examines how the mass and social media in Mexico generates and reinforces stereotypes of Indigenous people. The artifacts designed for this thesis have been created as research pursuits with the intention of encouraging a reflective interaction between the audience and graphic design.
Open Access
AIR (Augmented Intelligent Reality) and packaging: Designing for socially sustainable practices
(2021-07-06) De Souza, Allan Gomes Mariano; Gelb, David
The increasing consumer demand for socially responsible products has driven companies to disclose their Environmental, Social, and Governmental (ESG) practices. In turn, the high interactivity and connectivity of Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can contribute to better visibility of the ESG practices. The purpose of this thesis is to explore Augmented Intelligent Reality (AIR)a combination of AR and AIand packaging design to create engaging visual interactions. The goal of this research is to understand how AIR packaging, combined with brand transparency and brand personality strategies, can promote socially responsible products, ideas, and behaviours. This thesis/project employs two main methods, research through design (visual experimentation) and qualitative research (expert interviews and focus groups). This thesis implies that AIR packaging can perform as a powerful vehicle to provide two-way communications between consumers and companies. By helping companies offer more brand transparency to consumers about their supply chains, it can achieve positive outcomes for brands, creators, and society.
Open Access
Bridging the Gap: An Exploration of Visual Design Criteria Found in the "Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005" (AODA)
(2019-07-02) Abyazani, Arezoo Motavally; Cabianca, David
Information and communication technology such as World Wide Web have gradually become implanted in every aspect of individuals life such as education and training, employment, government, health care, and more. Web provides valuable resources and information for web users including people with disabilities and help them tackle several tasks that would otherwise need much more effort to be done. Accordingly, web accessibility creates a guideline with the aim of making the content of each web page available for a wider range of people with disability, has reached a new level of importance. For this importance, the government of Ontario passed a law titled the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005, in which all internet and digital services must comply with accessibility guideline by 2025. Several researchers show a gap between professional design work and technically driven accessibility design guidelines. One of the reasons for this gap is an absence of concern for visual design during the process of implementing accessibility guidelines. The aim of this paper is to bridge the existing gap between accessibility and visual design to improve the overall usability and functionality of the system. In order to achieve this, I first identify and explain the visual design related criteria of AODA guidelines, their requirements and their impact on accessibility design. Then I demonstrate my experiment with utilizing visual design elements through the implementation of visual design principles on two selected websites to create an accessible web page that is not only usable but also has an aesthetically appealing interface.
Open Access
Conceptual Constraints and the Graphic Design Process: An Investigation into Creativity and How Self-imposed Conceptual Constraints Can Affect Banal Information
(2015-12-16) Jean, Philippe; Gabriele, Sandra
The discipline of graphic design has an important role to play in developing how information is conveyed and consumed. This thesis has focused on uncovering how including self-imposed conceptual constraints in the design process can encourage creativity. Using weather data, I explored how such constraints can be used to liberate banal information from its structured, restrictive and mass consumed context, and ultimately participate in developing alternative meanings. Thus, through an exploratory approach to design practice, this investigation examined how conceptual constraints under three "creative operations" (combination, analogy, mutation) structured my work to allow for richer visual interpretations of banal information. Furthermore, by juxtaposing conceptual constraints with the "creative operations," I generated different visual propositions in order to disrupt routine processes in design and promote new and different designs. This research demonstrated how rules and conceptual constraints are viewed inside the context of graphic design. It also demonstrated how this framework for exploration can contribute to my own practice by allowing me to develop alternative design processes, and, ultimately, richer visual propositions for a given design problem.
Open Access
Damn Right Design: A Proposal of a Creative Platform to Facilitate Socially Responsible Graphic Design
(2017-07-27) Fernandez-Magnou, Mariana; Wong, Wendy Siuyi
This thesis argues that the discipline of graphic design still lacks awareness of the significant role it plays in addressing social problems. In social (graphic) design projects, designers move away from the more conventional design practice that takes place within an advertising agency or design firm, to work together with different organizations to address diverse social issues by contributing with their skills skills that are much more than make things look nice. I claim that designers havent realized the importance of their visual skills to help in such causes. Through Damn Right Design, this thesis proposes a creative, graphic design focused platform that aims at helping graphic designers to understand how they can be of use in addressing projects for communities or social organizations. Its goal is also guiding designers to ponder over their attitudes, and how to implement design thinking tools in mindful ways.
Open Access
Design a Meme: Visual Representation, Creative Strategies and Memetic Culture
(2020-08-11) Han, Yaqing; Gelb, David
Millennials today are highly engaged with social media, which offers them a platform to openly express their emotions and opinions. These social media platforms have become important parts of their daily lives. In this environment, a new visual form of expressioninternet memeshas emerged. Cultural memes develop in an extremely fascinating manner and have gradually become mainstream on social media. Memes have a significant impact on young people; the emerging visual culture may alter their perceptions of visual representation through digital media. My thesis uncovers the emotions behind the development of memes that lead its popularization in the modern online environment. Additionally, I detail the creative strategies of meme-making to explore the potential to apply memetic methods to design as a form of criticism. It is essential to understand the culture behind constitutive memes and explore the community and emotions behind memetic visual representation in the modern context of social media.
Open Access
Design for experience: Evaluating the use of an emotion-mapping tool to support brand equity through the identification of emotions
(2020-08-11) Bacic, Marija Linda; Siuyi Wong, Wendy
The ability to form emotional connections with consumers has become an essential way to support brand equity. Emotional connections are essential as they help define memorable brand experiences. This thesis addresses the following question: How can an emotion-mapping tool effectively facilitate designers and marketers ability to identify emotions as a way to emphasize a target emotion in the creative brief? Through an interactive brainstorming workshop, this research tests a proposed emotion-mapping tool. During the workshop, participants were presented with a speculative brand scenario, target personas and specific design objectives. This research contributes to marketing and design disciplines through an examination of how the emotion-mapping tool can be used to enhance workshop outcomes and provide preliminary evidence that this tool can benefit the creative development process.
Open Access
Empowering Airbrush Design for Social Innovation: Building a Micro-Community Based Creative Platform
(2019-07-02) Zhang, Frank Jing; Wong, Wendy Siuyi
Airbrush is a mechanical painting tool using compressed air to spray paint onto various surfaces. Since its introduction with the first patent in 1876, commercial artists and illustrators applied its seamless color blending effects in a wide range of creative areas, and the medium reached its peak in popularity between the 1950s and late 1980s. Now, the medium is facing the challenge of being marginalized in the mainstream design industry due to the advancement of digital technology. To begin a critical inquiry of this situation, French art critic Nicolas Bourriauds concept of Relational Aesthetics will be the main theoretical reference for this thesis. Viewing the medium as a relational art form, this thesis connects Italian design theorist Ezio Manzinis Bottom-to-Top design methodology to facilitate the delivery of a community-based Airbrush Design platform. This platform will act as a catalyst to empower people to use the medium for social recognition and to mediate between individual (private) and institutional (public) spaces.
Open Access
Encouraging Ethical Behaviour through Design
(2016-11-25) Alamoudi, Mallaa Ali; Scadding, David R.
The phrase social responsibility appears with the word design because of the visual power of design to publicize information and knowledge. Design and social responsibility is a controversial topic in the filed of graphic design because some designers prefer to stay neutral toward social topics around them while other designers encourage utilizing the visual power of design to solve and promote social issues for the purpose of change. Above all, Design and social responsibility is usually limited by three areas: green design, designing for charitable organizations and reframing from designing for companies that either through the process or from their final product do harm to people. In my design work, supported by the investigation of the operational terms of the problem, the articulation of the research question and objectives, the introductory sketching phase, the visual research, the design approaches and the user testing feedback demonstrate a design process that can be utilized by others in the practice of design to be more socially responsible. The findings and outcomes of this research aim to create a practical guide for designers, design students and individuals interested in the filed of design and social responsibility.
Open Access
Exploring Materiality in Graphic Design Through Creative Play
(2015-08-28) Beno, Nicole Mariette; Gelb, David H.
Graphic design can be investigated through the process of creative play where thinking and making are connected through materiality. This thesis explores three different methods of creative play that can be used by designers to generate concepts and challenge established ways of working. A research study on materiality and affect was conducted in the first phase of the thesis in order to locate a starting point for the visual explorations. From here, the process was divided into three different categories: improvisational, structured, and interactive play. Improvisational play can foster an understanding of materials and involves an intuitive way of working, without having a specific content in mind. Structured play focuses on how materiality can be manipulated to reflect content where materiality is used as a rhetorical device. Interactive play involves eliciting tactile engagement, where physical materials are implemented into the final design artifact and encourage engagement through touch.
Open Access
Handcraft as a Rhetorical Prop: An Investigation into What Handcraft Techniques Offer the Discipline of Graphic Design
(2014-07-28) Van Kampen, Saskia Gabriella; Cabianca, David
This thesis paper examines how handcraft (making an item by analog means using specific materials) can be a compelling rhetorical tool for graphic designers to harness. Contrasting handcraft techniques with computer graphics software “unsettles” rote graphic design practices. The meaning that lies in the physical act of making, the materials that are used and the contexts with which particular handcrafts are associated can support, as well as carry, visual rhetoric in design works. An analysis of the unconventional handcraft work produced by Stefan Sagmeister (USA), Mathias Augustyniak and Michaël Amzalag of M/M (Paris) (France), Marian Bantjes (Canada), and by this author (specifically, a design book produced in tandem with this paper) is used to demonstrate how complex meanings contained within handcrafts can be revealed and used in graphic design. The combination of handcraft and digital techniques enables designers to interweave the disparate social, physical and material qualities of the two processes into their work. In this way the work engages in disciplinary and societal discourse.
Open Access
Improving the User Experience in Healthcare through Service Design: Developing a Digital Identity for Patients
(2020-08-11) O'Dell, Christine Alexandra; Gabriele, Sandra
Current healthcare systems are decentralized and siloed, comprised of multiple technologies and platforms lacking integration. Because of the absence of consolidated medical records, patient care is based on incomplete information. Currently, patients have limited access or control of their health records. A shift in ownership of medical records to the patient would serve to improve the user experience while supporting a more useful integration of patient information within the healthcare system. The field of service design examines the systems and processes at work in a chain of relationships with the goal of seeking out opportunities for improving a users experience. This thesis contributes to service design discourse by demonstrating the value of adopting a service design framework for the development of a blockchain-based digital platform to serve as a secure patient record repository. Six healthcare providers and six patients of care participated in two studies. The first study comprised of in-depth interviews and co-design sessions. The results revealed pain points within the current healthcare system which were categorized into six themes: communication, care, control, privacy, information and repetition. In response, a blockchain-based digital mobile application prototype was designed to address the pain points. The application places the patient at the forefront of their care journey by giving them ownership over their electronic medical records. In the second study, the prototype was tested with the same 12 participants through a user-testing session. Responses from the second study showed patients were satisfied with the features. Healthcare providers thought the application would improve their work experience and interactions with patients. Additionally, two studies demonstrate the value of adopting a service design methodology to improve service experiences. This framework can be applied to improve user experiences in digital transformations within healthcare.
Open Access
In Search of a New Homeland
(2020-08-28) Kalash, Bashar; Hadlaw, Jan
The origin of my MDes thesis/project is a story I wrote to document my journey from Syria to Canada as a refugee. It motivated the visual and theoretical research that came to inform the thesis that follows and the three multimedia books that constitute its visual component. My thesis/project employs autoethnography and research-for-creation methods to capture and convey the experience of my journey. It marries this exploration of personal experience with theoretical investigation—specifically, Edward Said’s idea of “Orientalism,” Frantz Fanon’s notions of recognition, performance, and “interrogative subjectivity, and Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity—in order to examine refugee identity. Relying on self-reflection and the findings of my theoretical investigations, my thesis consider the importance of cultural identity in asking the question: “what is the experience of losing one’s homeland?”
Open Access
Investigating the "Blurry" Territory of Graphic Design: A Look at the Simultaneous Realities of Illusions Within the Moire Effect
(2016-09-20) Chiou, Christine Ling; Norwood, Angela D.
This thesis examines how designed artifacts can present two simultaneous realities within static and motion typography through an investigation of motion and depth perceptual phenomena. The deceptive nature of optical illusions revolves around conflicting realities, inducing a sense of ambiguity. This thesis incorporates the ambiguous nature of illusions in the mediation of visual messages within graphic design practice. The research constitutes the employment of optical illusions in visual arts, specifically in Optical Art, and graphic design. Particular focus is placed on the moir effect and its applications, which hugely inspires the visual investigation. Each of the projects establishes a parallel with the contradictory state of illusions, forming a visual rhetoric in the depiction of multiple realities within elusive truths. These blurry territories within graphic design present a self-reflexive tool for both designers and their audience in becoming observers of themselves and a conscious awareness of how they perceive the world.
Open Access
Learning from Toronto: An Experiment in Participatory Urban Data Visualization
(2019-07-02) Giambelli, Andrea; Norwood, Angela D.
Despite the unprecedented amount of data about the world that is collected and produced in our increasingly information-dependent societies, the possibilities for significant differences between human perception and actual data on the same phenomena are all but reduced, as are their potential effects on environments and communities. This thesis explores the opportunities offered by data visualization and interaction design to reveal and address such disconnect and to challenge widespread misconceptions by generating a deeper and more engaging understanding of information. These principles inform the proposal for a methodology for visual, interactive communication of data within urban environments, aimed at generating an iterative exchange of information between citizens and institutions. A concrete application of this proposal is investigated through the development of a digital platform for urban data visualization addressing issues within the city of Toronto.
Open Access
Listen to your Body: Designing for Type 2 Diabetes Management
(2015-08-28) Snow, Nancy L.; Gabriele, Sandra
This study informed the design of several components of a digital application to support education and strategies for the management of type 2 diabetes. This tool allows individuals to track food intake, activities, and blood glucose readings, creating visual representations of the relationship among individual's actions, choices, and their body’s response. The study helped identify the needs of those with diabetes and their healthcare providers through expert interviews. Scenarios and Requirements were used to generate key components for a prototype digital application. A usability study was conducted with healthcare providers to evaluate content and design, with results informing recommendations for the next iteration to be tested with those living with diabetes. This study revealed the value of designing for information need. Further studies could include user testing with individuals with type 2 diabetes to collect their perceptions and needs in the context of using a digital interface and self-care strategies.
Open Access
Negotiations in the Third Space: Visualization of the Complexity of an Iranian Woman's Identity
(2015-08-29) Nasirzadeh, Bahar; Hadlaw, Janin
Iranian female identity is typically represented as static and fixed, either portraying women as ‘modern’ or ‘victims’ (from the Western perspective) or ‘Westoxified’ or ‘modest’ (from the Islamic state’s perspective). Utilizing Foucault’s theorization of subjectivity and disciplinary power and Bhabha’s Third Space theory, I draw attention to the disciplinary institutions, such as family, school, urban space, government, and national and foreign media, and the ways that Iranian women resist and challenge these regimes of ‘regularization.’ I propose that through these contestations, ‘hybrid’ forms of Iranian gendered identity emerge as a result of creative borrowing and blending of Islamic, Iranian, and Western paradigms as the three dominant paradigms of modern Iran. My thesis project is a visual autobiography, titled Bahar's Story: Negotiations in the Third Space, which examines my experiences of being a female during my growing up in Iran, in order to visualize the complexity of Iranian women's gendered identities.
Open Access
On Virtual Becoming and Belonging: Visualizing the Performativity of Sudanese Cultural Identity and Resistance
(2019-07-02) Sharfi, Aala; Norwood, Angela D.
A contested history with turbulent political narratives has played a leading role in the formation of Sudanese identity. It is situated firmly in a romanticized past as it is in a troubled present. For the diaspora, social media platforms function as spaces for the continuous formation and expression of these identities. These platforms often serve as spaces to (re)produce the social and political relations that define everyday life in the homeland. This thesis explores the use of graphic design to discuss the performative articulation of these identities in virtual spaces. It follows understandings of identity from cultural studies as, always in production and never complete. By employing user- generated content found on online platforms for visual explorations, this thesis explores the ongoing dynamics between individual and collective narrations of identities; between personal reflections and public representations. The projects prepared discuss the complexities and nuances of Sudanese cultural identity online in the milieu of current political and social tensions. In the visual expression of Sudanese cultural identity, there is resistance, activism and a vision of triumph.
Open Access
Pedal off the Metal: An Investigation into Global Design and the Politics of Consumption
(2015-08-28) Tsumura, Emmie; Wong, Wendy Siuyi
The research presented in this thesis is an investigation into global design and the politics of consumption. The aim of the research is to provide a survey of seventy-nine key global design events held in 2014 and present the results of an empirical study of the key components witnessed in the staging of a global design event. The second aim of the study is to discuss the role that global design events play in perpetuating global inequalities as cities are further shaped by creative economic policy. The written research component of this thesis is used to inform my creative projects and communication design practice.